Academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev wrote the more. Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev: What is the biggest goal of life? “It is worth it so that the events, the atmosphere of previous years are not forgotten, and most importantly, so that a trace of people remains, which, perhaps, no one will ever remember.

In these November days of 2016, we remember Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, a man from St. Petersburg, about whom it is difficult to talk about without slipping into pathos. But Daniil Granin, in his essays about his contemporary, perhaps managed to do this.

DMITRY SERGEYEVICH LIKHACHEV.

The Likhachev phenomenon will seem incomprehensible to the future time. Once upon a time there was a scientist, a great scientist, he was engaged in ancient Russian literature, in essence, an armchair, book science. How did he become the spokesman for the public conscience in this troubled vast country, in these troubled years? Why are both the people and the authorities reckoning with him? Why, finally, all the corrosive time could not crush him, why did he resist, despite all the hardships, losses, persecutions? ..

Daniel GRANIN

The Likhachev phenomenon will seem incomprehensible to the future time. Once upon a time there was a scientist, a great scientist, he was engaged in ancient Russian literature, in essence, an armchair, book science. How did he become the spokesman for the public conscience in this troubled vast country, in these troubled years? Why are both the people and the authorities reckoning with him? Honored as the most worthy representative of the Russian intelligentsia?

Why, finally, all the corrosive time could not crush him, why did he resist, despite all the hardships, losses, persecutions?

Firstly, it was formed by a family of hereditary Russian intellectuals, and secondly, by the school. Spiritual strength brought up by school and family helped to survive in any conditions. He himself recalled: “In our school<…>encouraged to form their own worldview. Contradict existing theories. For example, I made a report against Darwinism. The teacher liked it, although he did not agree with me. I was a cartoonist, drawing on school teachers. They laughed along with everyone." This is how spiritual fearlessness was brought up.

And there was a third - a link. After the University, he was arrested for participating in a student circle, and he spent four and a half years on Solovki. But even there he contrived to engage in archeology, study the art of restoration, and studied the biography of homeless children. They confessed: "We're lying to you." And he was interested in how they lie, what is the philosophy of self-justification. Subsequently, Likhachev wrote works about thieves' speech, about the customs of thieves playing cards.

During the blockade, he managed to write, together with M. Tikhanova, the book “Defense of Old Russian Cities”, managed to withstand the tests of hunger, maintain dignity, although, while working on the “Blockade Book”, I was convinced how difficult it is, how hunger distorts people.

He knew how to use any of his misfortunes, defining this property with the term "resistance" - resistance.

He worked at the Pushkin House for more than 50 years. This was the style of his life: to live in depth, not in breadth. He liked the sedentary life. He considered it a blessing. It would seem that after all the disasters, the occupation of ancient Russian literature is an ideal refuge, a safe refuge in which he could hide from all the worries of the world. However, it didn't work out. And for many reasons. Time and again challenged him.

In the 60s, the idea of ​​rebuilding Nevsky Prospekt arose, and then for the first time I saw D.S. Likhachev "in action". It was in the sixties. Another attack on the beauty of Nevsky Prospekt has ripened, another group of reformers has undertaken to remake the avenue. A major restructuring was planned. The lower floors of all houses were supposed to be combined into one common showcase, a special space was created, made into a pedestrian zone, buildings “of no great value” were replaced with new ones, etc. The project had solid supporters who wanted something "outstanding" to commemorate their stay at the helm. And so the discussion began. Dmitry Sergeevich delivered a speech. It was a brilliant speech. He proved that the restructuring of Nevsky is fatal for the whole culture, Leningrad, Russia, through which Nevsky Prospekt passes. I hung this speech, if I could find it, in the Architectural Department. Calmly and very tactfully, he refuted argument after argument of the chief architect and other planners, showing the inconsistency of their arguments. He tried not to offend personally, not to convict of historical and aesthetic mistakes, but behind his words one could feel that superiority of knowledge that it became impossible to argue.

In those days, for many, such a decisive tone of objection to the city authorities was unusual. Many were perplexed - what does this "ancient", scientist, specialist in the "Lay of Igor's Campaign" need, what is he fighting for? But the problem of personality and power is not only a problem of the intelligentsia. This is a problem for all decent people, no matter what strata of society they come from. Decent people are intolerant not of power as such, but of injustice emanating from power.

That disastrous project for the reconstruction of Nevsky Prospekt was rejected, and this was the great merit of Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev. We are accustomed to the merits of creation, the merits of restoration, that was a different merit, perhaps no less - the merit of preservation. It is no coincidence that it was he who introduced the term "ecology of culture" and saturated this concept with concern for the preservation of the cultural environment, which is necessary for the spiritual settledness of a person. For moral self-discipline. Violation of the natural environment can still be restored, the destruction of cultural monuments for the most part is irreversible.

This is how his speeches began - in defense of the Catherine Park in Pushkin, Peterhof Park. Since then, he has become an obstacle to the Leningrad authorities, to all ignorant, selfish projects. The public rallied around him.

For many years he was kept restricted from traveling abroad. He was threatened. He was beaten in the entrance of the house. They set fire to the apartment. He remained adamant. In essence, just a decent person, by no means a dissident, but perhaps that was even more dangerous.

Of course, a wide audience perceived not his scientific works, not scientific, but moral authority. This is a very curious situation when a scientist becomes a conscience, a leader of the public, of the intelligentsia, and perhaps, to some extent, of the nation. Regardless of their academic work. We saw something similar in the case of Sakharov. You need someone you can trust. They believed Likhachev. As falsehood is felt, so the truth is felt, people understood that there is no gap between what he says, what he believes, and what he does.

He did not call for anything, did not teach anything. And if he taught, then by the experience of his life. It was something we had never seen or heard before. And today we don’t see, we don’t hear anymore - after Likhachev. He is irreplaceable.

Likhachev had a deep, heartfelt ability to find the way to the soul of modern man. The road has become impassable, it is blocked. The soul is closed, buttoned up, protected in every possible way from attempts of various efforts to penetrate it in the name of one's self-interest, in the name of political considerations. It is difficult to approach a person today. Likhachev knew how to do it. What is the secret here, I do not fully understand, this is high art, which is always a mystery.

He was a very big thinker. Once, at a discussion, talking about the future life, I spoke rather pessimistically. He remarked to this that pessimism is a privilege of Marxism, the most pessimistic doctrine, since it considers that matter is primary, and spirit is secondary, that being determines consciousness. This is what pessimism is - to assume that everything depends on the material world. In fact, the spirit is primary and consciousness determines being. This is the optimism of a person - a call to activity.

There was another feature that is especially important today - the style of his life. Likhachev's lifestyle is a challenge from the intellectual to the entire society of acquirers. The modest city apartment he lived in, cramped by modern standards for a world-class scientist, was littered with books. He received foreign guests from all over the world in small rooms in Komarov.

We often make excuses: “What can I do? What can we do? Everyone says it, at all levels: "I am powerless." And Likhachev alone, having nothing at his disposal except his word and pen - he had nothing else - he could.

It became a silent call to each of us: we can do much more than we do. We can be so much more than we are. We can if we don't look for excuses. Life shows that it is difficult, but not hopeless.

I think it is no coincidence that D.S. Likhachev connected his fate with St. Petersburg, he was faithful all his life to the culture of our city, its beauty, its intelligence, and for the city he will remain both pride and love.

Based on: Granin D.A., Likhachev's recipes / Whims of my memory, M., OLMA Media Group, 2011, p. 90-93 and 98-100; Granin D. Secret sign of St. Petersburg. - St. Petersburg: Logos Publishing House, 2000. - S. 339-344.

Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev - Russian literary scholar, cultural historian, textologist, publicist, public figure.
Born November 28 (old style - November 15), 1906 in St. Petersburg, in the family of an engineer. 1923 - graduated from a labor school and entered Petrograd University in the department of linguistics and literature of the faculty of social sciences. 1928 - graduated from Leningrad University, having defended two diplomas - in Romano-Germanic and Slavic-Russian philology.
In 1928 - 1932 he was repressed: for participation in a scientific student circle, Likhachev was arrested and imprisoned in the Solovetsky camp. In 1931 - 1932 he was on the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal and was released as a "drummer Belbaltlag with the right to reside throughout the territory of the USSR."
1934 - 1938 worked in the Leningrad branch of the publishing house of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He drew attention to himself when editing the book of A.A. Shakhmatov "Review of Russian annals" and was invited to work in the department of ancient Russian literature at the Leningrad Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House), where from 1938 he conducted scientific work, from 1954 he headed the sector of ancient Russian literature. 1941 - defended his thesis "Novgorod annals of the XII century".
In Leningrad, besieged by the Nazis, Likhachev, in collaboration with the archaeologist M.A. Tianova, wrote the brochure "Defense of Old Russian Cities", which appeared in the blockade in 1942.
In 1947 he defended his doctoral dissertation "Essays on the history of literary forms of chronicle writing in the 11th-16th centuries." 1946-1953 - professor at Leningrad State University. 1953 - Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1970 - Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1991 - Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Foreign member of the Academies of Sciences: Bulgarian (1963), Austrian (1968), Serbian (1972), Hungarian (1973). Honorary Doctor of Universities: Torun (1964), Oxford (1967), Edinburgh (1970). 1986 - 1991 - Chairman of the Board of the Soviet Cultural Fund, 1991 - 1993 - Chairman of the Board of the Russian International Cultural Fund. USSR State Prize (1952, 1969). 1986 - Hero of Socialist Labor. Awarded with the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and medals. The first holder of the revived Order of St. Andrew the First-Called (1998).
Bibliography
Full bibliography on the author's website.
1945 - "National identity of Ancient Rus'"
1947 - "Russian chronicles and their cultural and historical significance"
1950 - "The Tale of Bygone Years"
1952 - "The Emergence of Russian Literature"
1955 - "The Tale of Igor's Campaign. Historical and Literary Essay"
1958 - "Man in the Literature of Ancient Rus'"
1958 - "Some Problems of Studying the Second South Slavic Influence in Russia"
1962 - "Culture of Rus' in the time of Andrei Rublev and Epiphanius the Wise"
1962 - "Textology. On the material of Russian literature of the 10th - 17th centuries."
1967 - "Poetics of Old Russian Literature"
1971 - "The Artistic Heritage of Ancient Rus' and Modernity" (together with V.D. Likhacheva)
1973 - "Development of Russian literature of the X - XVII centuries. Epochs and styles"
1981 - "Notes on Russian"
1983 - "Native Land"
1984 - "Literature - reality - literature"
1985 - "The past - the future"
1986 - "Studies in Old Russian Literature"
1989 - "On Philology"
1994 - Letters about kindness
2007 - Memories
Russian culture
Titles, awards and prizes
* Hero of Socialist Labor (1986)
* Order of St. Andrew the First-Called (September 30, 1998) - for outstanding contribution to the development of national culture (the order was awarded for No. 1)
* Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree (November 28, 1996) - for outstanding services to the state and a great personal contribution to the development of Russian culture
* The order of Lenin
* Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1966)
* Medal "50 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" (March 22, 1995)
* Pushkin Medal (June 4, 1999) - in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of A. S. Pushkin, for services in the field of culture, education, literature and art
* Medal "For Labor Valor" (1954)
* Medal "For the Defense of Leningrad" (1942)
* Medal "30 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945" (1975)
* Medal "40 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" (1985)
* Medal "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" (1946)
* Medal "Veteran of Labor" (1986)
* Order of Georgy Dimitrov (NRB, 1986)
* Two orders of "Cyril and Methodius" I degree (NRB, 1963, 1977)
* Order of Stara Planina, 1st class (Bulgaria, 1996)
* Order "Madara horseman" I degree (Bulgaria, 1995)
* Badge of the Executive Committee of the Leningrad City Council "Inhabitant of besieged Leningrad"
In 1986, he organized the Soviet (now Russian) Cultural Foundation and was chairman of the Foundation's presidium until 1993. Since 1990, he has been a member of the International Committee for the Organization of the Library of Alexandria (Egypt). He was elected a deputy of the Leningrad City Council (1961-1962, 1987-1989).
Foreign member of the Academies of Sciences of Bulgaria, Hungary, the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Serbia. Corresponding Member of the Austrian, American, British, Italian, Göttingen Academies, Corresponding Member of the oldest US Philosophical Society. Member of the Writers' Union since 1956. Since 1983 - Chairman of the Pushkin Commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences, since 1974 - Chairman of the editorial board of the annual "Monuments of Culture. New discoveries". From 1971 to 1993, he headed the editorial board of the Literary Monuments series, since 1987 he has been a member of the editorial board of the Novy Mir magazine, and since 1988, of the Our Heritage magazine.
The Russian Academy of Art History and Musical Performance was awarded the Amber Cross Order of Arts (1997). Awarded with an Honorary Diploma of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg (1996). He was awarded the Big Gold Medal named after M.V. Lomonosov (1993). First Honorary Citizen of St. Petersburg (1993). Honorary citizen of the Italian cities of Milan and Arezzo. Laureate of the Tsarskoye Selo Art Prize (1997).
* In 2006, the D.S. Likhachev Foundation and the Government of St. Petersburg established the D.S. Likhachev Prize.
* In 2000, D.S. Likhachev was posthumously awarded the State Prize of Russia for the development of the artistic direction of domestic television and the creation of the all-Russian state television channel "Culture". The books “Russian Culture” were published; Sky line of the city on the Neva. Memoirs, articles.
Interesting Facts
* By Decree of the President of the Russian Federation, 2006 was declared the year of Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev in Russia.
* The name of Likhachev was assigned to a minor planet No. 2877 (1984).
* In 1999, on the initiative of Dmitry Sergeevich, the Pushkin Lyceum No. 1500 was created in Moscow. The academician did not see the lyceum and died three months after the construction of the building.
* Every year, in honor of Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, the Likhachev Readings are held at GOU Gymnasium No. 1503 in Moscow and Pushkin Lyceum No. 1500, which bring together students from various cities and countries with performances dedicated to the memory of the great citizen of Russia.
* By order of the Governor of St. Petersburg in 2000, the name of D.S. Likhachev was assigned to school No. 47 (Plutalova Street (St. Petersburg), house No. 24), where Likhachev readings are also held.
* In 1999, the name of Likhachev was given to the Russian Research Institute of Cultural and Natural Heritage.

“Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev lived, worked at full strength, worked every day, a lot, despite poor health. From Solovki, he received a stomach ulcer, bleeding.

Why did he keep himself full until the age of 90? He himself explained his physical stamina by "resistance." None of his school friends survived.

“Depression - I didn’t have this state. There were revolutionary traditions in our school, it was encouraged to form your own worldview. Contradict existing theories. For example, I made a report against Darwinism. The teacher liked it, although he did not agree with me.

I was a cartoonist, drawing on school teachers. They laughed along with everyone. They encouraged boldness of thought, brought up spiritual disobedience. All this helped me to resist the bad influences in the camp. When they failed me at the Academy of Sciences, I did not attach any importance to this, did not take offense and did not lose heart. Failed three times! He told me: “In 1937, I was fired from the publishing house as a proofreader. Every misfortune was good for me. The years of proofreading were good, I had to read a lot.

They didn’t take him to the war, he had a white ticket because of a stomach ulcer.

Personal persecution began in the seventy-second year, when I came out in defense of Catherine's Park in Pushkin. And to this day they were angry that I was against cutting down in Peterhof, building there. This is the sixty-fifth year. And then, in the seventy-second year, they went berserk. They forbade mentioning me in print and on television.”

The scandal erupted when he spoke on television against the renaming of Peterhof to Petrodvorets, Tver to Kalinin. Tver has played a colossal role in Russian history, how can you refuse! He said that the Scandinavians, Greeks, French, Tatars, Jews meant a lot to Russia.

In 1977, he was not allowed to attend the congress of Slavists.

Correspondent member was given in 1953. In 1958 they failed at the Academy, in 1969 they were rejected. He managed to save the Kremlin in Novgorod from high-rise buildings, saved an earthen rampart, then in St. Petersburg - Nevsky Prospekt, the portico of Ruska.

"The destruction of monuments always begins with arbitrariness, which does not need publicity." He took the Old Russian literature out of isolation, including it in the structure of European culture. He had his own approach to everything: natural scientists criticize astrological predictions for being unscientific. Likhachev - for the fact that they deprive a person of free will. He did not create a doctrine, but he created the image of a defender of culture.

He told me how, sitting at a meeting at the Academy of Sciences, he talked with the writer Leonov about a certain Kovalev, an employee of the Pushkin House, the author of a book about Leonov. “He is mediocre,” said Likhachev, “why are you supporting him?”

To which he began to defend him and seriously said: "He is our leading scientist in leonology." They listened to a report on socialist realism. Leonov said to Likhachev: “Why don’t they mention me? Socialist realism - that's me."

The problem of personality and power is not only a problem of the intelligentsia. This is a problem for all decent people, no matter what strata of society they come from. Decent people are intolerant not of power as such, but of injustice emanating from power.

Dmitry Sergeevich behaved quietly until his opinion was of particular importance for society and for the authorities. He worked, tried to be inconspicuous and worried about his own conscience, about his soul, wanting to avoid any, even the slightest participation in contacts with the authorities, especially from participation in her unseemly deeds. Likhachev began to argue with the authorities, to act publicly for the benefit of society almost immediately, as soon as he received sufficient social status, as soon as he felt his weight, he realized that they began to reckon with him.

The first actions he noticed in society were his speeches about renaming streets and cities, in particular, his speech on Leningrad television. Perm was Molotov, Samara - Kuibyshev, Yekaterinburg - Sverdlovsk, Lugansk - Voroshilovgrad, etc. At that time, television was directed by Boris Maksimovich Firsov, in my opinion, a very intelligent and decent person. Dmitry Sergeevich's speech was quite correct in form, but in essence - a daring challenge to the authorities. It turned out that it was difficult to punish Likhachev for him, because it was inconvenient. Kara befell Firsov. He was fired, and it was a big loss for the city. Thus, the problem of "acting or not speaking out" against the authorities quite unexpectedly took on a different dimension for Dmitry Sergeyevich. Speaking in a newspaper or on television, he put at risk not only himself, but also those people who gave him the opportunity to express his views, referring to society, to a mass audience.

The second victim of the authorities in connection with the Likhachev speeches was the editor-in-chief of Leningradskaya Pravda, Mikhail Stepanovich Kurtynin. He was fired after Likhachev's article in defense of parks. Kurtynin, like Firsov, was a good editor, and this event was also a loss for the city. Did Likhachev understand that other people could suffer as a result of his speeches? Maybe he understood, most likely, he could not help but understand. But he could not remain silent. Of course, in both cases, both Firsov and Kurtynin themselves were well aware that they were taking risks, but, apparently, they were driven by the same thing as Dmitry Sergeevich - conscience, decency, love for their native city, civic feeling.

To remain silent or speak out, regardless of the dangerous consequences, is a difficult question not only for Likhachev, it is also a difficult question for me. Such a choice sooner or later confronts each of us, and here everyone must make his own decision.

Be that as it may, but Likhachev began to speak. What actually happened to him as a result? He left the shelter. For example, the problem of Tsarskoye Selo Park was not formally a problem for Likhachev as a specialist. He came into conflict with the authorities not as a professional, a specialist in ancient Russian literature, but as a cultural figure, a public figure, in the name of his civic convictions. It is significant that on this path he could encounter not only personal troubles, but also obstacles to scientific activity. And so it happened: he became restricted to travel abroad. I would not go beyond the scope of literary criticism - I would travel abroad for various congresses and meetings. His work is a rare example in academic life. More often, people choose silence in exchange for increased professional opportunities.

But if such things are taken into account, then it is necessary to close any possibility of expressing one's civic feelings and build relations with the authorities on the principle of “what do you want?” This is the second problem that Dmitry Sergeevich had to face, and he also solved it in favor of fulfilling his public duty.

Granin D.A., Likhachev's recipes / Whims of my memory, M., OLMA Media Group, 2011, p. 90-93 and 98-100

1989. Academician Dmitry Likhachev, Photo: D. Baltermants

Whims of time

It is fortunate that in our collective cultural memory the Soviet era is reflected not only as a time of hymns and repressions. We remember her heroes. We know their faces, we know their voices. Someone defended the country with a rifle in their hands, someone with archival documents.

The lines from Yevgeny Vodolazkin’s book very accurately represent one of these heroes: “It would be difficult for a person who is not familiar with the structure of Russian life to explain why provincial librarians, directors of institutes, famous politicians, teachers, doctors, came to the head of the Department of Old Russian Literature for support, artists, museum workers, the military, businessmen and inventors. Sometimes crazy people come.

The one about whom Vodolazkin writes is Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev (1906-1999).

They came to the chief specialist in ancient Russian culture as the chief specialist in everything good.

But why was the already quite elderly Likhachev beaten in the entrance, setting fire to the apartment? Someone so aggressively expressed their disagreement with his interpretation of "The Tale of Igor's Campaign"?..

Likhachev simply did not participate in the choral condemnation of Andrei Sakharov. He had the courage to help Alexander Solzhenitsyn in the creation of the Gulag Archipelago. He took up the fight against illiterate restoration, with thoughtless demolitions of architectural monuments. It was then, decades later, that they began to reward for active citizenship. And then Dmitry Sergeevich himself tried to protect himself from attacks and attacks. Not relying on the common sense of others and the police.

And here's what is important: he did not experience this as a personal insult, a humiliation of dignity. He was offended that the hustle and bustle of life took away his time from doing science. In general, fate rather paradoxically disposed of Academician Likhachev's personal time. He - it seems to me, smiling sadly - wrote: “Time has confused me. When I could do something, I sat as a proofreader, and now, when I get tired quickly, it overwhelmed me with work.

And we use the results of this incredible work every day. Even if we do not regularly re-read Likhachev's articles, we watch the Kultura TV channel. And it was created on the initiative of people who are not indifferent to culture, including Dmitry Sergeevich.

To not lie...

Far from everything written by Likhachev I managed to read. And not only because some things have not matured. I just re-read his memoirs an infinite number of times. Dmitry Sergeevich, deeply feeling the word and the forms of its literary existence, felt all the dangers of the memoir genre. But for the same reason, he understood its capabilities, the degree of usefulness. Therefore, to the question: “Is it worth writing memoirs?” he replies confidently:

“It is worth it so that the events, the atmosphere of previous years are not forgotten, and most importantly, so that there is a trace of people whom, perhaps, no one will ever remember again, about whom the documents lie.”

Photo: hitgid.com

And academician Likhachev writes - without complacency and moral self-torture. What is the most remarkable thing about his memoirs? The fact that they are written on behalf of the Student in the highest sense of the word. There is a type of people for whom discipleship is a way of life. Dmitry Sergeevich writes with great love about his teachers - school, university. About those with whom life brought him together already outside the generally accepted “student” age and outside the classrooms. He is ready to consider any situation, even extremely unfavorable, as a lesson, an opportunity to learn something.

Talking about his school years, he not only shares his personal impressions, but recreates for the modern reader living images of the once famous Karl May school, the wonderful Lentovskaya school. And he immerses all this in the atmosphere of his native, beloved by him Petersburg-Petrograd-Leningrad. Likhachev's family memory is directly connected with the history of this city.

The Likhachev family was known in St. Petersburg as early as the 18th century. Working with the archives allowed Dmitry Sergeevich to trace the St. Petersburg history of the family, starting with his great-great-grandfather, Pavel Petrovich Likhachev, a successful merchant. The grandfather of the scientist, Mikhail Mikhailovich, was already engaged in another matter: he headed the artel of floor polishers. Father, Sergei Mikhailovich, showed independence. He began to earn money himself quite early, successfully graduated from a real school and entered the Electrotechnical Institute. The young engineer married Vera Semyonovna Konyaeva, a representative of a merchant family with deep Old Believer traditions.

1929 Likhachev. Dmitry - in the center

Dmitry Sergeevich's parents lived modestly, without scope. But there was a real passion in this family - the Mariinsky Theater. The apartment was always rented closer to the beloved theater. In order to subscribe to a comfortable box and look decent, the parents saved a lot. Decades later, having gone through the Solovki, the blockade, tough ideological "studies", academician Likhachev will write: "Don Quixote", "Sleeping" and "Swan", "La Bayadère" and "Le Corsaire" are inseparable in my mind from the blue hall of the Mariinsky, entering which I still feel uplifted and cheerful.”

In the meantime, after graduating from school, a young man who is not even 17 years old enters the Leningrad (already so!) University. He becomes a student of the ethnological-linguistic department of the Faculty of Social Sciences. And almost immediately begins to seriously engage in ancient Russian literature. With special love, Likhachev recalls the seminars of Lev Vladimirovich Shcherba. They were conducted according to the method of slow reading. In a year, only a few lines of a work of art were completed. Dmitry Sergeevich recalls: “We were looking for a grammatically clear, philologically accurate understanding of the text.”

In the university years (1923-1928) comes an accurate understanding of what is happening in the country. Arrests, executions, deportations began already in 1918. Likhachev writes very harshly about the decades of the Red Terror:

“While in the 1920s and early 1930s officers, ‘bourgeois’, professors, and especially priests and monks were shot by the thousands, along with the Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian peasantry, this seemed ‘natural’.<…>In the years 1936 and 1937, the arrests of prominent figures of the all-powerful party began, and this, it seems to me, most of all struck the imagination of contemporaries.

February 1928 became a turning point in Likhachev's life. Search and arrest. For what? For participating in the playful youth circle "Space Academy of Sciences"? For found (at the tip of a traitor friend) the book "International Jewry"? Likhachev himself does not indicate the exact, intelligible reason for the arrest. Maybe she didn't exist. But what happened, in his opinion, was this: "The monologic culture of the 'proletarian dictatorship' replaced the polyphony of intellectual democracy."

Solovetsky-Soviet life

Photo: pp.vk.me

In the memories of the prison, the house of pre-trial detention, the reader is struck not by moldy walls, not by rats, but by ... presentations with reports, discussions of theories. Unable to explain the absurdity of what is happening, Likhachev, surprised and ironic, writes: “Still, strange things were done by our jailers. Arresting us for meeting once a week for just a few hours for joint discussions of issues of philosophy, art and religion that worried us, they united us first in a common prison cell, and then for a long time in the camps.

Reflecting on the years spent on Solovki, Likhachev talks about many things: about meetings with people of all levels of morality, about lice and "sewn-in" - teenagers who lost all their belongings and lived under bunks, without rations - about temples and icons. But what is most impressive is how mental life and interest in knowledge were preserved in this hell. And, of course, miracles of compassion, mutual assistance.

It could be said that in 1932, after the issuance of documents on release, troubles ended for Likhachev. But this, alas, is not so. Ahead - difficulties with employment, obstacles skillfully erected to ill-wishers for scientific work, trials of blockade hunger ... From the memoirs:

"…No! hunger is incompatible with any reality, with any well-fed life. They cannot exist side by side. One of the two must be a mirage: either hunger or a well-fed life. I think real life is hunger, everything else is a mirage. During the famine, people showed themselves, exposed themselves, freed themselves from all sorts of tinsel: some turned out to be wonderful, unparalleled heroes, others - villains, scoundrels, murderers, cannibals. There was no middle ground. Everything was real…”

Courageously overcoming all this, Likhachev did not allow his heart to turn into armor. He also resisted the other extreme - softness, spinelessness.

DMITRY SERGEEVICH LIKHACHEV

Life dates: November 28, 1906 - September 30, 1999
Place of Birth: city of St. Petersburg, Russia
Soviet and Russian philologist, culturologist, art critic, doctor of philological sciences, professor.
Chairman of the Board of the Russian Cultural Foundation.
Notable works: "Letters about the good and the beautiful", "Man in the literature of Ancient Rus'", "Culture of Rus' in the time of Andrei Rublev and Epiphanius the Wise", "Textology", "Poetics of Old Russian literature", "Era and styles", "Great heritage"

Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev is the greatest scientist and defender of Russian culture. He lived a very long life, in which there were hardships, persecutions, as well as grandiose achievements in the scientific field, recognition not only at home, but throughout the world. When Dmitry Sergeevich died, they spoke with one voice: he was the conscience of the nation. And there is no stretch in this pompous definition. Indeed, Likhachev was an example of selfless and relentless service to the Motherland.

He was born in St. Petersburg, in the family of an electrical engineer Sergei Mikhailovich Likhachev. The Likhachevs lived modestly, but found opportunities not to give up their passion - regular visits to the Mariinsky Theater, or rather, ballet performances. And in the summer they rented a dacha in Kuokkale, where Dmitry joined the artistic youth.
In 1914, he entered the gymnasium, subsequently changing several schools, as the education system changed in connection with the events of the revolution and the Civil War.
In 1923, Dmitry entered the ethnological and linguistic department of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Petrograd University. At some point, he entered a student circle under the comic name "Space Academy of Sciences". The members of this circle met regularly, read and discussed each other's reports.
In February 1928, Dmitry Likhachev was arrested for participating in a circle and sentenced to 5 years "for counter-revolutionary activities." The investigation lasted six months, after which Likhachev was sent to the Solovetsky camp. Likhachev later called the experience of life in the camp his "second and main university." He changed several activities on Solovki. For example, he worked as an employee of the Criminological Cabinet and organized a labor colony for teenagers. " I came out of all this trouble with a new knowledge of life and with a new state of mind.- said Dmitry Sergeevich in an interview. - The good that I managed to do to hundreds of teenagers, saving their lives, and many other people, the good received from the camp inmates themselves, the experience of everything I saw created in me some kind of peace and mental health that was very deeply rooted in me.».
Likhachev was released ahead of schedule, in 1932, and “with a red stripe” - that is, with a certificate that he was a shock worker in the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal, and this certificate gave him the right to live anywhere. He returned to Leningrad, worked as a proofreader at the publishing house of the Academy of Sciences (a criminal record prevented him from getting a more serious job).
In 1938, through the efforts of the leaders of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Likhachev's conviction was expunged. Then Dmitry Sergeevich went to work at the Institute of Russian Literature of the USSR Academy of Sciences (Pushkin House). In June 1941 he defended his Ph.D. thesis on the topic "Novgorod Chronicles of the XII century." The scientist defended his doctoral dissertation after the war, in 1947.
The Likhachevs (by that time Dmitry Sergeevich was married, he had two daughters) survived the war in part in besieged Leningrad. After the terrible winter of 1941–1942, they were evacuated to Kazan. After his stay in the camp, Dmitry Sergeevich's health was undermined, and he was not subject to conscription to the front.

The main theme of Likhachev the scientist was ancient Russian literature. In 1950, under his scientific guidance, the Tale of Bygone Years and The Tale of Igor's Campaign were prepared for publication in the Literary Monuments series. A team of talented researchers of ancient Russian literature gathered around the scientist.
From 1954 until the end of his life, Dmitry Sergeevich headed the sector of ancient Russian literature of the Pushkin House. In 1953, Likhachev was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. At that time, he already enjoyed unquestioned authority among all the Slavic scholars of the world.
The 50s, 60s, 70s were an incredibly eventful time for a scientist, when his most important books were published: “Man in the Literature of Ancient Rus'”, “The Culture of Russia in the Time of Andrei Rublev and Epiphanius the Wise”, “Textology”, “Poetics Old Russian Literature”, “Epochs and Styles”, “Great Heritage”. Likhachev in many ways opened ancient Russian literature to a wide range of readers, did everything to make it “come to life”, become interesting not only to philologists.
In the second half of the 80s and in the 90s, Dmitry Sergeevich's authority was incredibly great not only in academic circles, he was revered by people of various professions and political views. He acted as a propagandist for the protection of monuments - both tangible and intangible. From 1986 to 1993, Academician Likhachev was chairman of the Russian Cultural Foundation, was elected a people's deputy of the Supreme Council.
Dmitry Sergeevich lived for 92 years, during his earthly journey in Russia political regimes changed several times. He was born in St. Petersburg and died in it, but he lived both in Petrograd and Leningrad ... The outstanding scientist carried faith through all the trials (and his parents were from Old Believer families) and endurance, always remained true to his mission - to keep the memory, history, culture. Dmitry Sergeevich suffered from the Soviet regime, but did not become a dissident, he always found a reasonable compromise in relations with his superiors in order to be able to do his job. His conscience was not stained by any unseemly act. He once wrote about his experience of serving time in Solovki: “ I understood the following: every day is a gift from God. I need to live the day, be content to live another day. And be grateful for every day. Therefore, there is no need to be afraid of anything in the world". In the life of Dmitry Sergeevich there were many, many days, each of which he filled with work to increase the cultural wealth of Russia.

DMITRY LIKHACHEV “I WANTED TO KEEP RUSSIA IN MEMORY…”

“With the birth of a man, his time will also be born. In childhood, it is young and flows in a youthful way - it seems fast at short distances and long at long distances. In old age, time definitely stops. It is sluggish. The past in old age is very close, especially childhood. In general, of all three periods of human life (childhood and youth, mature years, old age), old age is the longest period and the most tedious.
Memories open a window to the past. They not only give us information about the past, but also give us the points of view of contemporaries of events, a living feeling of contemporaries. Of course, it also happens that memory betrays memoirists (memoirs without individual errors are extremely rare) or the past is covered too subjectively. But on the other hand, in a very large number of cases, memoirists tell what was not and could not be reflected in any other type of historical sources.
The main drawback of many memoirs is the complacency of the memoirist ... Therefore, is it worth writing memoirs? It is worth it so that the events, the atmosphere of previous years are not forgotten, and most importantly, so that a trace of people remains, maybe no one will ever remember about which the documents lie ... "

This is the beginning of a new book by Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, a prominent scientist and defender of Russian culture, “MEMORY. I wanted to keep Russia in my memory…”
He lived a very long life, in which there were hardships, persecutions, as well as grandiose achievements in the scientific field, recognition not only at home, but throughout the world. Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev was an example of selfless and relentless service to the Motherland.